Port Charlotte resident receives fellowship

Barbara File Marangon has been named the recipient of the 2016 Ballet Russes Fellowship awarded by the University of Oklahoma School of Dance.

Barbara Marangon / Courtesy photo

Marangon, a longtime ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer, is a resident of Port Charlotte. She received her B.A. Degree in Dance from SUNY Empire State College and moved to Florida in 2006 after teaching in California and Italy for many years. She is currently a member of Florida Dance Masters and the National Dance Teachers Association of America.

Marangon becomes the fourth recipient of the fellowship, which is provided by two devoted patrons of the school. Her work will include teaching ballet classes at the University, rehearsing the Oklahoma Festival Ballet and working on the Ballet Russes exhibit that will open at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.

Born in New York, Marangon was accepted into the School of American Ballet at age 11. She subsequently danced with the Joan Wolf Ballet, the Garden State Ballet, and in Europe with the Stadttheater Klagenfurt (Austria). When she returned to New York she became a soloist with the New York Dance Ensemble.

She moved to Italy in 1987 and in 1989 became the artistic director of her own school, Scuola di Danza American Ballet near Venice, which she ran for 15 years.

In 2014, Marangon was nominated for the Thayer Award by the Circus Historical Society for her published memoir, "Detour on an Elephant," which details the year she spent performing on tour with the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1978. She won a Best Ballet award in 2005 at the International Dance Grand Prix in Barcelona, Spain, for her remake of the Ballet Russes ballet, "L'Apres Midi d'un Faune."

Carrie Seidman

Carrie Seidman has been a newspaper features writer, columnist and reviewer for 30 years...and a dancer for longer than that. She has a master's degree from Columbia University Journalism School and is a former competitive ballroom dancer. Contact her via email, or at (941) 361-4834.
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Last modified: August 23, 2016
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